[SPOILERS - NO PLAYERS] The PB39 Map and Lurker Thread

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Do we have a coinflip coming up for TGLH? Charriu says it will be done in 2 turns in his T71 report. DS on T70 began "2 fresh chops" in addition to completing another. It looks like they could finish the same turn.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I had not read JR4's thread when I posted above. It's meticulous reading sometimes. Interesting that three teams went for TGLH.

[Hollybombay]

Looks like a coinflip between Superdeath and Ipecac for the oracle. Any bets?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

If that's the case then it's obviously great for whoever gets it but in this game the failgold is more helpful than usual so it's a great build even for those who lose the attempt, getting wealth with (hopefully) +modifiers before you can build wealth. This map is insanely lush and the empire costs are more relevant than usual. I played through on a SP game and crashed the economy hard (-5g and worse at 0%) before Alphabet on the way to Currency. This Oracle is late enough that the winner has a real leg up in breaking this critical economic bottleneck.

I put JR4 in the driver's seat right now, especially as he continues to work over Charriu, but if ipecac gets this he's right back in it.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I suppose I should have checked the player threads before replying here. Ipecac got Oracle.

So what's the knight beeline look like?

I have the Oracle and Currency now. Need to think about whether I want to tech Math and maybe Construction along the way, or direct beeline along the lines of IW->HBR->Monarchy->Feud->MC->Machinery->Guilds

Calendar gives 4 happy too, and I might need the Epics and try for GLib.

Prioritising what to do in the Classical era is not a strength of mine. I'll probably end up winging it. Current plan: IW (for 2x gems)-> Math->Calendar

Calendar is the right answer for this map IMO. Math is fine but he has enough food hammers to continue expanding via whip/regrowth on cottages. With so many calendar resources and food everywhere he can grow these cities tall very quickly and slingshot his economy even further ahead. He has already claimed more than his share of the land through aggressive expansion so conquest is less vital than for others. Grow the economy, get costs under control, then attack with a tech advantage. Someone will not manage this fine edged expansion/costs balance properly and be behind an era by knights. If ipecac had lost this coin flip there's a good chance that he would have been the one left behind.

[Coeurva]

Hanging Gardens as such is a smart play by superdeath imo, but settling six cities in one turn (for a count of 18) and then landing the wonder while your military is ten warriors and five war chariots will put everyone's attention back on him -- frankly I think he'd have to collapse instantly if all his neighbours weren't, as it seems, incessantly distracted to sucker-punch Charriu.

Also superdeath's economy is already lagging (at 100% sci, 100 beakers behind JR4 before Colossus at similar gpt costs) and I'm not sure if he can stomach the increased maintenance from so many more citizens. Could whip them all off, though, and probably will. Whether superdeath can stay competitive depends on ipecac's resolve imo, if the Zulu decide to gear up against Yuri as well, then I don't think Egypt's gains will be enough. Also, Yuri's spirited HA-against-knights defense in PB37 remains in my mind, and superdeath won't have knights here and might be underestimating how much attention Yuri is paying to his soldiers -- Yuri has to be ahead in demos by now, for that matter, and might simply be running few soldiers because superdeath also does that.

[Commodore]

I think WLP, Ipecac, and JR4 are definitely the leaders now; Superdeath's play just made him a tastier target (six free cities now won't autoraze). If anything, his survival is based on his neighbors' desire to gear up more rather than smash in with horse archers or swords.

[Coeurva]

I should get graphs on superdeath next turn. He has 44 EP on me; is that the standard in MP? Shouldn't that be 45 (mutual protection against one side losing graphs because the other put in 4 EP)?

You invest 43 and put in the 3 EP turn early (if possible) before hitting 40, to signal your intent. If your opponent abstains from doing the same, go to 44 first, then 46 to punish them if they went 44/48 (46/152 > 0.3) and file your opponent as unwilling to cooperate (unless you're their only contact, of course).

Delaying your target's getting graphs on you by 1t is almost never worth projecting that diplomatic image; if your opponent direly wants graphs on you right now they'll go 44 anyway to be sure (45 has no advantage at all). Same as for why overly negotiating on foreign deals until they're "perfect" is more likely to hurt you than confer any advantage from the margin: you will be seen as a bad business partner.

[Zed-F]

I don't see how whipping knights is really going to be sustainable over the long term for wetbandit. He has a lot of ground to make up power-wise & not many cities; what cities he does have tend toward being tall. I would have thought he should maybe have been preparing to switch some cities into the workshop economy in preparation for guilds...

[Old Harry]

JR4 is going to be very disappointed to obsolete the colossus for these Astro Islands. He could have saved cash for a few turns while building a caravel just to be sure they were worth going for...